Eric Bergen

So I get my new apartment and sign up for speakeasy dsl. Their site and DSLreports both say that I can get 6.0 down. So I sign up for it, the line gets connected ect. When I get it all hooked up and start a download from kernel.org I’m only getting about 2mbit. So I email speakeasy and they email back saying that my actualy distance from the CO is 14k feet not the original 12k feet and at 14k feet the only stable connection I can get is 1.5/384. F that. I have heard that there is a class action lawsuit against pac bell/sbc for doing crap like this.

American cheese pisses me off. How dare it try to take the place of cheddar. Omelettes, breakfast sandwiches. I see this shit cropping up everywhere. American cheese has one place. The grilled cheese sandwich and it’s not all that great there. PLEASE PEOPLE, COMPANIES!! Bring back the cheddar. For me. For everyone.

On a side note, one place where people seem to forget the cheese is salad. A bit-o cheddar shredded with some ranch can really kick up a salad. I will post my famous ranch salad (I even have a classy hard to eat version) recipe one of these days.

It seems to me that a lot of people have auth denial when trying to make connections to MySQL. They seem to ignore the text of the error message. ‘Access Denied’ means access denied, nothing else.

Remember three things have to match. The host as MySQL sees it, the username, and the password. When MySQL returns access denied it’s not broken. One or more of those three things does not match. I don’t really need to reiterate what’s in the manual. Chang the lock or change the key to make it fit.

This is in response to Robert Jaquez’ article Linux security is a ‘myth’, claims Microsoft.

“Who is accountable for the security of the Linux kernel? Does Red Hat, for example, take responsibility?”
Nick’s Answer: “It cannot, as it does not produce the Linux kernel. It produces one distribution of Linux.”
My Answer: Yes infact Redhat can take responsibility for the Linux kernel sent out in it’s own distribution and often does. Second they frequently submit patches on the Linux kernel mailing list. These patches are passed on to all distributions that use the kernel.

“In Microsoft’s world customers are confidant that we take responsibility. They know that they will get their upgrades and patches.”
I’m confident that my vendor will get me patches for security updates without having to wait weeks or even months for a “Service Pack.”

“Most customers look for more than just a product from their vendors. They need a solution that comes with the appropriate levels of support and service. This is where Linux is becoming more challenged as people expect more from Linux.”
Red hat has offered support for quite some time. If you don’t feel comfortable relying on a linux only company maybe you would like to be backed by Novell.

“Linux is not ready for mission-critical computing. There are fundamental things missing. For example, there is no single development environment for Linux as there is for Microsoft, neither is there a single sign-on system.” There are many development environments for Linux. This is the power of choice that Microsoft seems to be missing. I fail to see how a login system keeps Linux from being ready for mission-critical computing. XDM is the standard graphical login system for most desktop environments.

[Update - 1/13/05 - Wes Maldonado has corrected my ignorance about Linux single sign-on. Thanks ]

“There are bits of the Linux software stack that are missing. These are factors that are holding back Linux.” What’s missing?

Robert, I understand that you are just publishing an interview but maybe you can help your readers out a bit by shining some light on what you are being given from the Microsoft marketing engine instead of just regurgitating it. As far as I can tell you didn’t even try. I spent a grand total of about 20 minutes researching for this post.

Recently I have been trying to get people from work to go to a near by sushi bar. So far there has only been one taker and he loved it. We have been back since then at his suggestion. The most common reason for not going has been, “I don’t like raw fish.” To which I respond, “Have you ever had it from a sushi bar?” The response is always, “No.”

Sushi does not mean raw fish. It’s a style of cooking that is more centered around rice then fish. My experience has been that the raw to cooked fish dishes is about 50/50. The two sushi bars I have been to clearly mark which items are cooked and which aren’t.

One other common misconception about raw fish is that it smells ‘fishy’. A good sushi bar will never smell fishy. Some dishes such as the american invented ‘California Roll‘ contain no fish.

One of my personal favorites is Nigiri which is a bed of sushi rice covered with a thin slice of raw fish. The main reason I like this so much is because of the little wasabi suprise ball in the center of the rice. This gets the new guys every time. Seymour likes to call these ‘The Snails” because they are slightly curved and salmon has very distinct stripes in the meat making it look like a snail shell.

The whole point behind this rant is, don’t be afraid to try something new. If you don’t like it at least you know. Chances are you will find something you like and be able to enjoy it for many years down the road.

Orbitz has been trying to get people to spend money they don’t have for a few months now. They have come out with this marketing campaign that basically says “You don’t have any excuses for not traveling somewhere”. The commercials go something like this:
*music* Don’t think twice!
*voice* But I just maxed out all of my credit cards
*music* Don’t think twice!
*voice* I’m going to Hawaii!
(I don’t remember the destination but the credit card part is from an actual commercial)
I’m not sure where they are going with this type of advertising, but if anybody just maxed out all their credit cards the last thing they should be trying to do is take a vacation. I understand that some people do have problems with credit cards but, what kind of company actually encourages them to put themselves further in debt to make a few bucks?

I suppose if the only purpose of their advertising is to get their brand stuck in people’s brains then they have certainly succeeded.

Tabbed browsers have made the target=_new _blank or _top style links annoying and useless. In the old days these links allowed visitors to easily return to your site after viewing a few pages of off site content. Now they are a sneaky surprise that shows up like a hand grenade for those of us that use modern tabbed browsers. There is nothing worse than a link that pops up a new window covering up my existing neatly organized tabs. After reading a few links in this new window I start creating new tabs in it. This leads to having my normal sites open multiple times. What a pain. A good link will give me enough information to decide if I want to choose to open it in a new tab or over the existing one. Having multiple browser windows open is a thing of the past.

Apologies to all of you IE users that have no clue what I’m talking about. It’s time.

I know this is a little late but it came up in a conversation today.

French as in ‘french fries’ has nothing to do with the culture or people. In cooking ‘to french’ is a verb meaning “to cut into thin strips”.

French:
1. To cut (green beans, for example) into thin strips before cooking.
2. To trim fat or bone from (a chop, for example).

To every small cafe that renamed ‘french fries’ to ‘freedom fries’ thinking the french actually care or you were going to cause world peace. Stop, please. You are embarrassing us.